Ro Islam it was a dream but now
[Music]
alhamdulillah my name
is my father is from at and my mother is
from Switzerland and I'm Muslim two
years now I was born in Montreal and um
I grew up in Montreal uh when I was a a
kid a young kid I was really good in
school school like my mom like I I'm
sure my mom had like High Hope in me
because uh I was his is his first kid
and u i was a really good kid really
good grades in school and everything
everything turned uh changed while um I
was uh looking for happiness I was only
uh living with my mom and my stepfather
and I didn't really have a father figure
uh was not my stepfather was not a a
father figure and my dad was not in my
life so uh I ended up being raised uh by
the street so
um at the age of like 14 13 14 years old
I starting looking like the the other
kids in school um and I saw them like I
saw the kids that were like taking drug
and drinking alcohol and going out with
girls I saw them like like more happy
than the other kids so I started to to
to wanted to be with them and and try
that stuff so that's what I did and
hanging out with bad
people uh end up to giving us like bad
habits so at the age of 15
um I was so bad that they put me in like
a juvenile gel so I went to juvenile Gil
like for a few months
and um after that
um I did I didn't stop like doing bad
things I did so much bad things that
um they want they wanted me like to lock
me down like for good uh so I ran I ran
for the from I ran out from that
Juvenile jail and um after that uh my
mom had to send me back like to send me
to Switzerland so I went to
Switzerland um to work for for for for
her brother and um I were I was working
there like for I worked there like for
like three months but then again I I was
alone there but I put myself into a
trouble that the police was looking for
me that I had to come back here to
Montreal and that uh was at the age of
17
um at the age of 17 I cooled off uh I
stopped stop doing like bad things a
little bit because I I was saying to
myself like soon I will be 18 and soon
like if I get caught I will go to jail
but uh I don't know what happened with
me like at 18 like I started back again
and uh they got me and I went to jail
for like two years before I went to jail
uh I learned I learned that the
happiness was um into getting high
getting drunk and getting with girls but
in jail uh because jail is the school of
crime I learned that the happiness was
into getting a lot of material thing a
lot of money and
um two years in that jail made like just
like made me have a Criminal Mind I was
I didn't had a really Criminal Mind
before but that two years like that's
what it did and um I was I was Christian
before
and I was Christian but I was not
praying just I was only praying like
when I I wanted something really bad or
when I was in problems into problems and
that jail time was for me a problem so I
started reading the Bible and uh praying
a little bit and I don't know why like
uh somebody that I wasn't wasn't
speaking with um he wasn't around like
the who I was hanging with um he just
came and gave me the uh Quran and he
told me to read it but at that time like
uh I was reading the Bible and the Quran
was not uh wred the same way so uh it
didn't like touch me so I just like give
it back after when um I got out from
jail um I started my mission my mission
uh to get money when I got out of jail
is there that when when I got out of
jail is um then when I starting chasing
the money
getting after the money and um because I
had no school and the fastest way to get
money was uh a criminal way that's
uh the way I went and in every
um type of way to make money any type of
like uh bad thing you can think I was in
it because really my plan was getting
money and um I lived like I don't know
if it was if it's a good thing or if
some people would say it's a good thing
some people would say it's a curse
because in my
life
like I achieved like most of my goals
that I that I
wanted and
um for 10 years like I Liv that life
that life of like luxury that life of
power
and respect so
um because when I say this like people
don't really understand so I have to
make a little bit like
of of U explain a little bit like when
we when I say like I had the things that
most people young and older they would
like to have that I had in my life they
don't really understand because
everybody has his own uh perspective on
like what is luxurious so when we're
talking about cars band is I have a few
I had a few BMW Porsche Viper hmer jagar
Cadillac like most of all the brands
like the big brands
that's the car that I
had like houses
condos but not like only like the cars
like
normal like the the car because when you
buy a car it's like to make you happy
because but the thing is that happiness
doesn't last so after right after like
you have to suit up the
car but after when the car is suit up
there's nothing else to
do so so you buy another car me at at
one time like had like two cars and I
was renting out like other cars just to
have another change because like I was
bored I I had a house and I was living
in otel
sweets it cost me like 10,000 a week
just for hotel sweets
so the clothes like just the clothing
like um because like when you have money
like even the money like change your
style a little bit because before I was
like I was addressing like
everybody but after that I had to like
buy suits you know like uh three like
three $4,000 suits you know and I had
like uh me I was not really the type
that was going like into clubs and and
um partying I I didn't really like that
what I liked it more was really because
really I was on a mission I really liked
it more like staying home counting money
planning for other other plans you
know so when I got out got out to to
into the into the club was only like for
money purpose when we had like meetings
or like when when
they when when they invite me so they
had to be like VIPs and everything
because the thing is that most of the
rappers they want to be like gangsters
and most of the kids they want to be
like rappers but those rappers they want
to be like the
criminals and at one
time that's was the type of person I
was I was a person that really liked
like to enjoy a good meal so that was
was my that's what I liked it most most
every day going to Big
restaurant like big like the biggest
restaurant of the cities and eating on
Floors that most of you will never
see like floors that that are not open
to the public so we eat like for like
few thousand a meal and that's nothing
because more there's other people that's
doing more you know so that was the type
of life
that I was
living and I lived like a millionaire
life for
like 10
years but at the end because all that
doesn't come from from nothing you have
to work a
lot and at the
end I was questioning myself like
because when you have all that and I I
didn't find the
happiness like even at one time because
I was in my house that I all like I all
I rebuilt the my complete house like I I
made I I I made a container like to come
on front of my house and I destroyed
everything like throw out everything on
in the container and I rebuild
everything like with the best of the
material but even
after I'm alone in my house like and I'm
thinking like like I'm not happy even if
I drink the best of the
alcohol I'm not happy so I was
questioning myself like really
badly and
um it's then when sometime like you you
go into like little like what we can
call like
depression because you're questioning
yourself so
much and um at the same time like
because when you live uh
that kind of Life can't be good forever
so after 10 years uh I got caught for a
little thing and uh I had a sentence of
11 month so I went to jail for for a few
months nine months and um because I
didn't like you don't do like the full
sentence like I went I went to jail for
9 months so uh there because of my
criminal file like they put me like in a
certain uh um area like the maximum and
at that time like they put me like even
like if I had like a a a good life
there's always like you always want more
so there's like always I was looking up
to other people still you know so and
they put me like in a in a wing with
like those kind of people that had even
more money that was spending even more
money like they were talking like a lot
of money so
um and and you and we it's not like
anybody like we're talking just like
that and you believe like you can read
it in the newspaper when something
happened like it's in the newspaper so
um and they were talking about me like
that even them they were not
happy even them like they wanted to
change so
really all that made me even more like
put in a position that I had that that I
had to think about my
life and um after at the end of my
sentence uh I got in a in in a cell with
um a Muslim and uh that Muslim brother
uh started talk to me about his Islam
and uh really now I was like because I
was already questioning myself so I was
really interested about uh what he was
saying and uh what is a good thing for
him but a bad thing for me he got
released but he told me he would send me
the Quran but uh maybe something
happened because he never did like not I
don't know if you never did but I never
I never received it so
um after after uh I got released and I
went back to to my same life you know
and I forgot everything about about God
because when you no more into problems
and you're not a Muslim as soon as
things go good like you forgot God again
and um while I was like do doing my life
uh I met up uh with a woman and um that
woman she was Muslim and her mom she
told me that I should look up into Islam
and it's then that I started doing my
own research so I was reading like books
and I read the Quran and I was really
surprised to find that in the Quran that
they were they had like the the same
Prophet that there was in the Bible at
even at a point that I didn't understand
understood how Muslim will understand
the Quran because in the Bible they have
like the beginning of the story and the
Quran just completed it so
um and I I started to do my own research
like even like a lot a lot I was re
researching and um the only problem
that I end up having is like that
because as a Christian you have to
believe that Jesus is the son of God and
if you don't believe this you go to hell
and if you believe it you go to paradise
and I didn't want it to go to to hell
for nothing like like he had to be the
True Religion so I had to really make
some
research and uh
alhamdulillah um I found that Islam was
a truth and uh I mean Mas shahada so
right after I took Mas shahada 3 days
after
um my mom uh called me and told me that
the police was looking for me so I went
to see my lawyers and they told me that
I have to I should give myself tin so uh
I went and I give myself tin uh but for
the first time it was the first time I
went into jail as a Muslim uh I'm here
with my client Isaac or known as isak
musim who is charged in Montreal with
various offenses uh particularly fraud
forgery the use of Forge documents with
regards to the fraud that my client is
charged with uh the amount of the fraud
is
6899
7024 this is what occurred in the year
of 2006 over a 3-month period between
the months of May and September but
there's a different side to Isaac that
we know and that we've come across since
his arrest since these events Isaac has
completely turned his life around I mean
not withstanding this Criminal record I
mean breaking and entering conspiracy to
commit a criminal act robbery assault
Mischief intentional impersonation I
mean the list goes on and on not
withstanding all this this individual
has completely changed himself he is no
longer the person that he was when he
was younger uh he's married he had a
tough life I mean he grew up on the
street he grew up a life of crime and
violence that's no longer the person he
is he's married he's a contributing
member of society he has a stable job we
have letters of recommendation from his
employers uh he's found religion he's
converted to Islam and he's he you know
he's very observant of that uh he
commits himself to to do charity work on
on a purely volunteer basis no one has
asked him to do this and these are all
signs of someone that has seen the
process seen that crime is not a life
that he has chosen
and he has clearly indicated that he
wants to be a contributing member of
society and that that
advice what advice if you got to
Muslims and non-muslims regarding
Islam but
because more that I because before I did
I never knew like Muslim people if they
was Muslim people in around
me I didn't know because they never
never never talk to me about Islam I
thought I think I really think that
there was no muslim around me but now
that I'm a Muslim and I'm just like
hanging out with Muslim and seeing
Muslim there's a thing that really
like get me sad you know is because me
before I used to like I lot of the I
used to like a lot the tattoos and on my
head I tattoo get
money but more that I see little kids
like young kids young
Muslim I realize that they have the same
tattoo that I
have but not on their head they have it
on their heart and they want to
compromise their
Islam for money
for like like seriously stupidity like I
I don't and that get me like really
sad that they don't know the value of
what they really
have
because Islam gives me an
happiness that like that everything that
I had in my
life like all the
money the girls
because with a lot of money comes the
girls the money the girls the house the
condo like all that
life never giv me a happiness that I
have
today a Happ a happiness that
last and for the
non-muslim seriously before like I I
didn't know nothing for for real me
before I will never thought I will be a
Muslim never
never so seriously
like what they showed what they're
showing like in the media because we all
things like we think like Muslim is like
crazy people with beard that want to
blow thems up like I don't I don't
understand like what you see in the
media is not the real thing really if
you want to learn something
you open the book and you read and
before I used to not read never read but
seriously when you read about Islam it's
the best
thing that you can learn and even if
you're not interested about changing
your religion or getting a religion at
least just read it for like
education just read it so you know what
they're talking about
why so much people are turning into
Islam why you have to question yourself
like because everybody has a
brain maybe you believe there's a God or
not I believe there's a God and a God
Like give us a brain and the brain is to
think so I just ask you to think by
yourself don't
think like don't don't just follow what
the media G you like think by yourself
and read like read the Quran there's
translation of the Quran in French and
English in all the language so just read
try to really learn about Islam and
don't look what the Muslims are doing
because that's a lot of people say like
uh but I know a Muslim a lot of Muslim
we're human beings and we all do
mistakes and there's a lot of Muslims
that
like there's only one Muslim and that
was a prophet that really like can live
what the
religion the prophet like that really
like lived what the religion was
teaching but all the Muslim most of the
Muslim even me I'm first
me I'm not I'm not a perfect Muslim we
all try to be good we all try but you
can't learn the religion by looking at
me or hearing what I'm saying so that's
why I'm saying go read the Quran and
learn about Islam uh from his its
source and I want to
say to roadside to Islam